Next week, Money20/20 is putting on the best Fintech hackathon in the world, and Worldpay is sending 5 of our own to compete. The challenge: to design solutions for a simpler, fairer, and more inclusive financial system for businesses and society as a whole.

The team will be competing for $100k in cash prizes as well as for fame and glory.

Meet our team:

(From left to right)

Arjun Balaji, Worldpay Senior Software Engineer, and Francophile

Specialty:Clean coding enthusiast

What are you looking forward to at the Hackathon?

I'm looking forward to the exciting discussions and all the crazy ideas that come out of it.

This is THE hackathon for finTech and payments - My fifth year participating at some capacity and I really get stoked watching the finalist on stage present their ideas at the end of the event with little to no sleep. The passion and technical talent wafts though the air and energizes me, making me realize payments is far for boring. I guess that is what I look forward to the most from this event, oh and I can’t wait to get a pastry for Paris Baguette in The Venetian.

What is your favorite thing in the world right now?

My favorite tech thing in the world right now are chatbots. I know, most consider them wack but I think bots will turn the virtual corner and be in the face of all of us before we know it. I remember a time when people didn’t like Amazon either. Bots can come in many forms and as a designer, no-UI has always intrigued me.

My favorite thing right now is find amazing ideas in emerging areas of tech like AI, machine learning and blockchain.

Scott Sievers, Worldpay Database Administrator and team player

Specialty: Purveyor of Data

What are you looking forward to at the Hackathon?

I look forward to ideating through new product/app ideas with teammates and seeing what we can come up with.

What is your favorite thing in the world right now?

Spending time with family and cycling.

Jeremy Buikema, Worldpay Software Engineer and miniature donkey rider

Specialty: Writing simple and clean code

What are you looking forward to at the Hackathon?

I'm looking forward to learning/creating something new and hanging out with the crew.

What is your favorite thing in the world right now?

My favorite thing right now is hanging out at home with all 7 of my animals (2 cats, 2 dogs, a bunny, a horse, and a miniature donkey). We just got a new cat and he has fallen in love with our bunny. Watching them play is terrifying and one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) is a security development that allows businesses to remove clear text data from their network. A P2PE solution consists of a combination of validated hardware, software, applications and processes to encrypt cardholder data. P2PE ensures that confidential card payment data is encrypted at the point the payment is taken, removing the clear text data from the retailer’s network. That data is only decrypted once it’s passed to the solution provider’s secure environment.

P2PE uses a key management process in which every transaction is created using a unique key. This means that each transaction would have to be individually broken to gain access to sensitive data. The processing power and time to hack individual transactions to gain substantial amounts of cardholder data is incredibly difficult.

A P2PE listed solution provides businesses with access to the latest technology to protect customers’ data.

Make sure you can spot the difference between P2PE hype and truth with our handy infographic:

EMV compliance and the switch to chip-enabled cards and readers can have a big impact on reducing a merchant's interactions with fraud. Stolen data, particularly credit card and other sensitive data is still a large problem for companies. As long as enterprises store these materials in their databases, hackers will continue to try to infiltrate business networks to get their hands on customer information.

EMV is leading customers to develop new habits like using mobile wallets with a biometric for a faster checkout experience. Discover 5 more ways EMV is changing the landscape:

1. EMV readiness is growing.

Consumers should be able to use their chip and pin credit and debit cards at 99% of merchants by 2019 and 100% of merchants in 2020.

Before EMV adoption, in 2015, the US was 25 years behind the rest of the world when it came to chip-based cards. In October 2015, the US transitioned to chip-based cards after several high-profile credit card hacks at Target, Home Depot, Michaels, and other big-box retailers. Now, the US is the largest chip market in the world.

According to Visa, EMV cards have been effective in reducing counterfeit fraud, which is the most common type of fraud committed in the US. Merchants that have transitioned to EMV cards have seen fraud levels drop by 76% from December 2015 through December 2017.

Fraudsters are adapting to the widespread use of EMV by moving to card-not-present (CNP) fraud. Since skimming and creating fake mag-stripe cards are no longer as profitable as they once were, fraud rings have turned to chargeback fraud (making fraudulent purchases using stolen identities and card numbers), as well as targeting call centers with social engineering to steal account data. Call center fraud rates have doubled since 2015.

EMV is already being outpaced by new and improved secure payments technology. In Australia, 93% of payments are contactless. In Canada, 51% of payments are contactless. Along with additional security, contactless payment also increases the speed of the transaction.

1.In 2016, credit cards were the most popular payment method around the world, with 29% saturation. However, by 2021, that will completely change, as an estimated 46% of consumers will use their eWallets to shop , instead of their credit or debit cards.

2. China is the largest eCommerce market in the world, and that's not going to change anytime soon. If you want to capture this market, look into accepting Alipay and WeChat pay on your website to attract Chinese shoppers.

3. If you're looking to expand your business's footprint in North America, look to Latin America. Argentina will have the fastest-growing eCommerce market in Latin America for the next 5 years, outpacing both Mexico and Brazil, thanks to their high internet penetration rate (80.1% of the population has internet access) and a large middle class population.

4. Passwords are so 2017. Biometrics will spell the end for passwords - not just for point of sale payments, but for customers who shop and pay on their mobile device or biometic-enabled laptop or desktop.Current methods include fingerprint scans, iris scans, heartbeat scans, voice recognition, facial recognition, palm vein scanning, and even ear prints.

5. Biometrics will go beyond the humble fingerprint scanner. While nearly all mobile wallets have allowed for payment authentication via fingerprint scan or PIN in the past, Apple’s recent debut of the iPhone X, with its 3D face-scanning detection technology, is set to lead a shift away from fingerprint scanning. Where Apple goes, the market usually follows.

6. India is the fastest-growing eCommerce market in the world. Demonetisation and a large population of unbanked consumers have contributed to the rise of eWallets, led by Snapdeal, MobiKwik, and Paytm.

7. Businesses that know how to leverage big data to tailor gather insights on how their customer demands and preferences change over time will be able to build a longer term relationship with their customers. For instance, Costco turns over its entire product suite 12 times a year to better serve its 75 million US subscribers.

8. Hong Kong is one of the leading digital economies with some of the highest rates of internet saturation in the world at almost 90%.

9. Baby boomers will be the cause of an eCommerce boom. By some estimates, global household spending by people aged over 60 in 2021 will be twice as much as seniors spent in 2010 - to the tune of $15 trillion. This is due to a large, tech-savvy aging population who are already comfortable using social networks and shopping .

10. Credit cards are the method of choice for shoppers in Japan. In the country with the world’s oldest population, low smartphone use among consumers age 65 and older is restricting mCommerce from growing quickly.

11. Aussies are increasingly opting for using their eWallets like PayPal and Visa Checkout over credit cards. BPAY is a popular electronic bill payment system in Australia that is quickly dominating other bill payment services. Another thing Aussies are into: international shipping. Nearly 20% of Australian eCommerce was cross-border in 2016.

12. While digital wallets will remain the global payment method of choice for eCommerce, bank transfers will also surpass both credit and debit cards in popularity, becoming the second most popular payment method in the world. This is good news for merchants, since there is generally a lower cost of payment acceptance for bank transfers than for payment cards.

13. In Malaysia, eCommerce growth is expected to outpace traditional in-store sales over the next 5 years. 75% of Malaysian internet users browse the web via smartphone.

14.Last year Singapore overtook Silicon Valley as the Number 1 source for start-ups, so it’s no wonder that 73% of internet users in this high tech city shop .

15. The US has the oldest eCommerce market in the world. And US shoppers are pretty traditional, with 75% of transactions in the US paid via Visa or Mastercard.

16. In the Netherlands, iDEAL is the most widely used payment method , with 1 out of every 5 purchases made on a smartphone.

17. Subscription services will grow in popularity, due to consumers who are happy to pay for convenience. Right now, 92% of millennials and 70% of retirees in the US have active subscriptions. Look for the subscription model to make an impact beyond content subscriptions, to luxury goods to sports equipment, and even cars.

18. The top 3 digital payment services for Russian shoppers are Yandex.Money, Webmoney, and Qiwi. Nearly 50% of shoppers in Russia make at least one purchase a month.

19. Consumers in New Zealand are all about platforms with Alibaba and Amazon both having significant presence.

20. South Korea's advanced IT infrastructure means that nearly all households are connected to the internet and most adults have a smartphone. South Korea is one of the largest eCommerce markets in Asia, and is expected to see double digit eCommerce growth in the next 5 years.

If a business accepts credit or debit cards, they're responsible for protecting their customers' sensitive data from theft and misuse. Knowing the payments security threats that merchants face can help prevent a catastrophe, like a data breach or penalty fines from the major credit card brands from occurring.

Check out our infographic on the main threats that merchants face today, as well as the solutions that can help mitigate their risk:

A team inspired to do better

Meet the team attending RetailNOW 2018 and hear how they are striving to empower your business independence.

Every year Worldpay looks forward to reconnecting with our partners, vendors and soon to be partners ! With everything going on at the show, we wanted to make sure you don't miss out on the opportunities planned for you.

Worldpay speaking events

Our industry’s top-performing resellers regularly add new recurring revenue streams to their offering. This session will go in-depth with executives from those organizations detailing how they select, evaluate, bundle, market, sell, and service their recurring revenue products and services. We’ll discuss headaches and success stories plus practical tactics and techniques for transitioning your business to the highly profitable recurring revenue model.

You’ve Hired the Best, Now Develop Your Team for Success! (Building Productive Teams for the Long Term)

Presented by Shannon Reichart and Paul Kirk of Worldpay

Monday, Aug. 6, - 11:40am - 11:00am and 11:50am - 12:30pm

and Wednesday, Aug. 8, 8:00am - 8:40am and 8:50am - 9:30am

Let’s face it. Today’stech-savvy workforce has options, and because of this, finding the right people for our business can be a challenge. This ranges from salespeople, administrative people, and everyone in between to keep your organization running at optimal velocity. And more importantly, keeping the right people is even more challenging!

This40-minutesession will assist with how to invest in developing your most valuable resource, your people, and demonstrate why this is so critical now more than ever before and how you can maximize your ROI in your talent development.

2) Oops, you’re not in the Sandbox environment, you’re in the prelive environment.

How do you tell if you’re in the sandbox or the prelive environment?

This is easy-peasy. If the url has “prelive” in it, you’re in the prelive environment. If the url has sandbox in it, you’re in the sandbox environment.

Once you have applications working in the Sandbox, you can request access to our Pre-Live environment for additional testing. The prelive environment has scheduled maintenance on Tuesdays and Thursdays which is why you might see unresponsiveness. Please contact support at ecc@vantiv.com for prelive issues.

But what does it mean for developers today? What are the biggest IoT trends and how will they impact your work?

While there’s nothing completely new and shiny on the IoT horizon, plenty of improvements are being made. Here are five emerging trends to keep an eye on.

Python and Java will dominate.

If you want to ride the IoT wave, make sure you know the dominant programming languages, namely Java and Python. A 2017 IoT Developer Survey conducted by the Eclipse Foundation lists Java as the top programming language for IoT development, particularly for gateways and the cloud. Python has gained traction for data-intensive applications and works well with small devices.

Research is paving the way for the launch of 5G.

Looking toward the 2020 rollout, loads of research is being dedicated to 5G, including how the technology will be used, how companies will invest in infrastructure, and how network providers will maintain profitability. The speed of 5G provides an opportunity for more devices to constantly gather and interpret data, from wearable tech that tracks geolocation and biometrics, to home technology that monitors house temperature and lighting along with external weather reports, allowing for predictive actions.

Location, location, location.

Enterprises are continuing to adopt IoT for location-based services, with lighting and temperature control systems being a key use case. This means that formerly low-maintenance appliances like your thermostat or floor lamp will now require management and monitoring, including firmware and software updates.

Healthcare and retail top the list of IoT use cases.

Use cases for IoT are growing fast, and the healthcare and retail industries are expected to see greater adoption of the technology in the coming year. The healthcare IoT market alone is forecast to reach $117 billion by 2020. Encrypting data transmission will be a priority, particularly for healthcare IoT devices.

Security remains a top concern.

One of the most important concerns is the need for solving the security issues of IoT devices that power everyday technology. Experts cite the prolific implementation of unsecured IoT devices as well as the growing availability of DDoS-for-hire services as root causes for DDoS attacks, which increased 91 percent in 2017. Developers will need to be vigilant about product security, including requiring https, and adding credential changes for secure devices.

Are you planning on integrating credit card payments on your website? Before you code your payment form, think about the customer experience. Try these 5 easy tips to make payments easy and worry-free for your customers and you’ll be rewarded with more completed sales and less abandoned shopping carts.

1. Pare down your form to the bare necessities using common sense logic.

Make it easy for your customers to breeze through checkout by shrinking the amount of data they need to enter. Save your users from a “credit card type” drop-down menu by coding the form to detect the card type automatically with the first 4 digits of the credit card. There’s a handy guide for this here. Same goes for the address field. All you need is a zip code to automatically populate city and state fields.

2. Even better: include a card scanning option for mobile users.

When you’re integrating credit card payments on your website, keep your mobile users in mind. I’ve been super grateful for Apple’s new credit card scan feature on iOS every time I’ve bought podcast tickets on my mobile phone on one of those event apps that gives you a teeny amount of time to reserve event tickets.

3. Offer incentives and loyalty points.

You want your customers to come back, right? Rewarding customers for shopping at your store is a great way to encourage them to come back and spend. Try offering a free sample at checkout or points that are redeemable for a discount on their next order. The benefits can vary from larger sales to an increase in return business. When you’re integrating credit cards on your website, giving a reward in exchange for a sale is a great way to delight customers.

4. Allow customers to pay for purchases on more than 1 card.

Say you have a group of friends who want to pool their money to buy a giant dinosaur sculpture (a totally reasonable purchase). Sure, they can buy their new dino statue on one person’s card and reimburse each other through various cash sharing apps, OR you can provide a user experience that will surprise and delight these dinosaur aficionados by coding a checkout that will allow a customer to divide a purchase among many cards. When integrating credit cards on your website, convenience and ease of use will delight your customers. Particularly if you’re selling higher-priced items, something like this could make the difference between a customer completing the purchase on your site or somewhere else.

5. Keep in mind that design can reinforce perceptions of security (and perceptions of vulnerability).

What’s the future version of today’s humble step tracker or health app? Our resident tinkerers at Vantiv labs took on an API challenge to enable commerce with fitness wearable technology for usage in a sharing economy business model (like a gym membership where you only pay for the equipment you use). Click here to check out how they combined Fitbit’s API with Vantiv’s API. Read on to discover five more futuristic applications for fitness wearables.

Smart Patches

Forget about your Fitbit. Patches that stick directly to the skin are the new future for wearable tech. Smart patches have the advantage of being worn all the time – unlike wrist wear which needs to be removed to be charged and can’t get wet. Some pro sports teams are already testing smart patches that analyze health by monitoring sweat on their athletes. Plus patches worn under clothes offer a discrete option for health monitoring for folks who prefer a bit more privacy.

Smart Clothing

Smart fabrics with sensors hidden in your t-shirt or waistband might be able to track your heart rate, fat ratio, calorie burn, and provide you with updates on your shrinking waist size. For professional athletes or patients in rehabilitation, biosensors in clothing might be programmed to detect unusual muscle contractions for doctors to track. Supa is already using AI and heart rate sensors in their line of women’s sportswear that even tracks UV absorption.

Drones

Imagine heading out for a run with your own personal drone that will fly ahead of you and set the pace to improve your mile time or meet your distance goals. In a 2015 study of joggers using running drones, the joggers reported enjoying the “companionship” and “personality” of their drone jogging buddies. The best thing about a jogging drone? It’s way less flaky than a human partner. (Ahem, looking at you, Becky.)

Smartglasses with Augmented Reality

While Google Glasses were roundly mocked when they launched, the promise and potential of wearable tech glasses is still a tech ideation darling. Augmented reality paired with a slender, lightweight glasses frame instead of a bulky headset could seriously enhance a workout. For instance, a runner training for a race could pop on some smartglasses, download an app similar to Zombies, Run!, and enter an immersive augmented reality – where their evening run is spiced up with zombies, obstacles, and video game-style missions.

Tattoos

Harvard and MIT researchers have combined biosensitive tattoo inks with traditional tattoo artistry to create tattoos that double as biomedical mood rings. The inks change color depending on body chemistry. For an example, an athlete could monitor the status of their recovery, or a diabetic could tell their blood sugar level by the changing color of their tattoo. The applications could go beyond chronic conditions as well: temporary tattoos for short duration monitoring (like for hospital stays or surgical recovery), or for situations where continuous health monitoring is needed for a specific duration (for athletes in physical therapy or for experimental patient trials).

Do people say your head is in the clouds? If they do, you’re likely on to something. At least if your head is in charge of your healthcare practice’s technology. Because you’ll be on the cutting edge of adopting this new technology. Check out 3 ways cloud technology is a gamechanger for health services providers.

1) Administrative costs.

No surprise here: inefficient billing practices are revenue drainers. Nearly 20 percent of consumers have unpaid health care bills due to confusing payment processes. And, up to 80 percent of medical bills contain mistakes, which results in a loss of approximately $125 billion annually.

Meanwhile, healthcare providers operating in the cloud are enjoying $8 billion in annual savings. Check out how digital payments reduced one provider’s administrative costs by 25 percent, and reduced time spent on submitting claims and processing patient payments by 88 percent.

2) Patient service.

Patients are accustomed to 24/7 availability and service from their banks, their retailers, their dog groomers –you get the picture. They’d like the same level of access and service from their healthcare providers.

In this new digital landscape, healthcare providers need to deliver Internet-based services that connect healthcare professionals with patients, to talk about upcoming procedures, aftercare, and medication management. Providers are increasingly turning to cloud solutions to modernize their legacy apps and IT infrastructure to make this happen.

3) Scalability and efficiency.

Getting up and running is half the battle and again, cloud technology claims the edge here. Cloud deployments typically take only 3-6 months, compared to the 12-month timeframe to implement an on-premise solution.

Healthcare cloud spending is skyrocketing, expected to increase from $3.73 billion in 2015, to $9.48 billion in 2020. And companies that offer the solutions health services providers are seeking will undoubtedly reap the financial benefits. Will yours be one of them?

Everyone who submits an idea will get a $10 Starbucks card to help them power through the rest of the year. All entries will be entered into a contest for a $100 Amazon card. (Check out our terms and conditions here.)

Kevin Eksterowicz is a Talent Acquisition Leader at Vantiv. I asked him about the new hiring approach that Vantiv rolled out this year (and that my team has used to great success). Here's what he had to say:

One of the most impactful exercises a company executes is its selection of new employees. And when you’re growing as rapidly as Vantiv, the stakes are especially high. In 2016 alone, we filled almost 1,400 jobs!

However, when we scanned the organization late last year, a few things stuck out like a sore thumb:

Our interview and selection process lacked consistency and structure.

Interview training and tools were not on any of our curriculum.

Feedback on candidate experience was often lackluster at best.

Turnover within the first 12 months of hire was 23%, 75% of which took place within the first six months.

We stopped in our tracks and realized that we had a huge opportunity in front of us to deliver value and impact to this growing organization.

After months of planning, developing and piloting, we launched Vantiv’s SELECT! program on July 31st. SELECT! is an approach to interviewing and selection that embraces a set structure and strategy for all roles in the organization, ideally with just one on-site visit limited to four interview sessions. These sessions are tied directly to Vantiv’s leadership model and evaluate a candidate not just on experience and job titles, but through deep focus on the competencies required for success.

We call these sessions our interview focus areas:

Role Fit

Business Impact

Leadership/Self-Leadership

Culture & Values.

Focus areas remain consistent across all levels of the organization, yet the competencies and suggested interview questions vary by level. The outcome is a well-rounded candidate evaluation and a candidate experience that feels robust, streamlined and smooth.

Our Talent Management and Talent Acquisition teams worked hand-in-hand to develop this program complete with:

Just three months in, almost every people leader (740+) and over 300 interviewers have completed the eLearning. New hire Michael Rose was one of the first candidates to go through the new hiring process. He said, "As I interviewed with potential new employers, Vantiv’s interview process stood out above the pack. Vantiv sent a clear message to me during the interview process… a well-organized and focused approach to finding the best candidate while providing an excellent candidate experience for me. The detailed/thoughtful interview process was a large factor for me choosing Vantiv! Even the follow-up call from my new Leader after I had accepted the offer reassured me I had definitely made the right choice.”

Early feedback on the SELECT! process is very positive and by this time next year, we target marked improvement in early attrition, candidate experience feedback, time to fill metrics and hiring manager satisfaction feedback. Hiring Manager Shannon Reichart said of SELECT!, “this team approach has not only helped me as a hiring manager to make an informed decision regarding new hires, but I believe that it is creating a positive experience for our candidates, providing them with greater insights into Vantiv from other perspectives. Select will give us the foundation that we need as a leadership team to recruit, develop, and retain great people here at Vantiv!”